


The Fallen Sakura Tree

by YuunaFiction



Category: Bleach
Genre: AU, Anger, Angst and Tragedy, Canon Divergence - Winter War, Casualties of War, Consequences of war, Depression, F/M, Few Survivors, Ichigo is doing his best but he's sad and lonely, Long War, Lost Love, M/M, Mourning, Not Canon Compliant, People trying to cope, Post-War, Post-Winter War (Bleach), Sadness, a lot of people died, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-03-08 17:28:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18899290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YuunaFiction/pseuds/YuunaFiction
Summary: To find the will to fight for what is right, to protect what needs protection, and to stand up for those that can't stand up for themselves is easy... all things considered. It is the steep price paid by the victor that comes harder.





	The Fallen Sakura Tree

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!
> 
> Just dropping by with a short Bleach one-shot. 
> 
> I've been toying with the idea of a Bleach Time-Travel fic for ages now, and needed to get it out of my head a bit - and this is where it ended up as a start. Sort of. I'd say this is more a prologue than anything and setting up the scene. But then again, it sort of works on its own as well and I didn't know if anything else would come of it. So I decided to share what I had~ I've got tonnes of small snippets of fics stored away, and if the interest is there, I might just upload more!
> 
> Toodles!

Kurosaki Ichigo was tired.

Though his life had not been very long compared to many others, his spirit was already weary and waning. Those that knew him could see it. Those that didn’t know him could see only what Ichigo wanted them to see. To them, he was their Captain-Commander, unwavering and so strong that the Gods themselves trembled as he passed them by. A living legend. To his friends, all they saw was a broken man with a power that had come at a cost far too great.

It was difficult to watch Ichigo wither away as the years passed. The Winter War had been long and devastating. Countless lives had been lost in its madness, and in its wake, only a scarce few remained. Ichigo was amongst them, and as the most powerful among them, people turned to him to lead.

To defeat Aizen, Ichigo had been forced to grow stronger, but with it came unseen consequences-- for no power came without cost. As his power grew, his mortal shell buckled underneath its pressure, and ultimately his human body collapsed, and he died. Aizen had cost him his mortal life. Though, perhaps it didn’t much matter in the end. Isshin, Yuzu, and Karin had not lived long enough to grieve the death of their son and brother.

The war had lasted for years, spanning almost into a whole decade until its conclusion. Yet the wounds left behind was far worse than the battles themselves. Friends, family, lovers, and comrades had fallen by numbers far too large to dare think about. Those that survived had little cause for celebration as those they would have surrounded themselves with laid buried in the ground with few to remember them by.

Out of everyone Ichigo once knew, only Inoue Orihime and Urahara Kisuke survived. Kisuke had always had an uncanny ability to outthink and outmaneuver people who wanted him dead, and Orihime’s unprecedented healing and shielding abilities had served her well in the war. Her transition from the World of the Living to that of Soul Society had been a simple, if not anticlimactic affair. Much like Ichigo’s own. Due to their continuous visits to Soul Society and their exposure to large quantities of Reishi and Reiryoku, death turned out to be as simple as changing a shirt.

Orihime already had abilities of her own, and thus manifesting a Zanpakuto came easy to her when the time came. With a body that didn’t threaten to break so easily as her old one had, her strength grew with her constant presence on the battlefield, and eventually her skills as a healer and protector made her renowned amongst the Shinigami.

These days Orihime carried the white haori of the Fourth Division with a sense of purpose none before she ever had. She was the voice of compassion, kindness, and mercy in the Gotei 13.

Urahara, donned in a white haori for the Twelfth Division’s captaincy, could often be found by the Captain-Commanders side—his voice of reason, logic, and an endless supply of information made him a man to be respected.

However, at the very top sat Kurosaki Ichigo. He’d taken the position of Captain-Commander and the head of the First Division with great reluctance almost two years before the end of the war. The truth was that he didn’t want the position, but he was left with little choice in the end. There was nobody else who could take his place—nobody powerful enough to keep the balance the world needed.

He ruled with an iron fist— unyielding but famously fair and righteous. Ichigo was known to have a very rigid sense of right and wrong, but none could blame him for it. Their predecessors had proved countless times that turning a blind eye to immorality for the simple reason that someone decided it was ‘for the best and within the frames of the law’ had severe repercussions that none were keen on repeating.

Ichigo refused to abide by laws that made people suffer. Be they Human, Souls or Hollows.

Ultimately, the safety of the realms under his protection took precedence to all else. Too many times had the world been subjected to terror and destruction. He’d seen the consequences of such madness enough times to know what needed to be done to preserve peace and order.

So far, he’d done an admirable job.

As the war ended, it became the task of Urahara, Orihime, and Ichigo to rebuild their decimated ranks and the society they had eventually become part of. So many Shinigami had perished during the war that the entire Division’s laid empty and vacant. It was no easy task to find new recruits and train them to a satisfactory enough level that they could fill the empty seats of both captaincy and that of lieutenants for several Divisions.

Yet, after almost a century, they had.

Soul Society was slowly healing after everything that’d happened. The Seireitei, although far from completely restored, once again had an ambient buzz of activity within its walls. Life was returning to how it had once been—for most people that is.

Orihime had made it her mission to heal Soul Society of its sicknesses. A task that was endless and daunting. But it was her way of coping, of atoning for the people she’d failed to protect in the Winter War. However, she also did it for Ichigo—to lessen his burden in any way that she could. He was already threatening to buckle underneath the mountain of responsibilities he’d been forced to carry.

Urahara was of similar thoughts. Though his heart was not completely in his actions anymore—not like it had once been. He too was tired and weary. But he understood the need for his continued presence. His research, knowledge, and age could not be ignored and was essential to the Gotei 13. He was too important to be allowed to slip into the shadows and disappear as he’d first hoped for. And he couldn’t leave Ichigo without drowning in his own guilt. They’d been through too much together to abandon each other now.

Ichigo himself did his best to keep afloat. He’d settled the most pressing affairs, restored a semblance of balance to the world, and steadily refilled the Shinigami ranks. For all intents and purposes, one could claim that Ichigo had been successful in all his goals. But that wasn’t true. He still carried the raw wounds of loss and grief caused by the deaths of those close to him. There were places, people, and things he could not involve himself with unless he wanted to spiral into a depression he was hard-pressed getting out of. It was far too common for comfort already.

One such thing was the Captaincy of the Sixth Division. All Divisions had Captains… except Division Six. He could not bear the thought of another person wearing the haori—thus he refused to appoint a new Captain. They needed one, but two lieutenants filled the position well enough.

People didn’t talk about the lack of a Captain in the ranks. It was an open secret why it was empty, and after seeing the heart-wrenching amount of grief that flickered in the Captain-Commander’s eyes whenever the subject arose, none could bring themselves to force the issue. It was one of those things that was better left unsaid.

**Author's Note:**

> Yikes! Dark times, dark times! The aaaangst.


End file.
